A writer and journalist at Czech weekly Respekt, Jaroslav Formánek has been living and working in Paris since 1989. He came to prominence at the end of the 1990's with his novel “Dlouhá kakaová řasa” (A Long Cocoa Seaweed) which describes the Prague Spring through the eyes of a child. In 2001, he published “Beze stop” (Without Traces), a collection of stories about people living on the margins of French society.